Concept
Cerrado sensu stricto
Also known as: cerrado sensu stricto, typical cerrado, core savanna physiognomy
The physiognomy that gives the biome its name — the middle of the Cerrado vegetation gradient: scattered, gnarled, thick-barked, fire-tolerant trees over a continuous grass-and-herb layer. Between open grassland (campo limpo) and closed woodland (cerradão), it is the most extensive and most characteristic face of the Cerrado.
Cerrado sensu stricto is the vegetation that named the [[cerrado|biome]] — the middle of its structural gradient and its most familiar face.
What’s distinctive
A discontinuous canopy of small, crooked, thick-corked trees — 3 to 8 metres, 10–60% cover — standing over an unbroken layer of grasses, sedges and herbs. The trees look stunted and tortured; they are not. The gnarled form, corky bark and sclerophyllous leaves are precise [[fire-adapted-flora|fire and drought adaptations]], and most of each plant is [[fire-adapted-flora|below ground]]. This is the Cerrado the word usually means, and the most extensive of its four-or-more recognised physiognomies.
The biome is a gradient, not a type: from [[campo-limpo|campo limpo]] (pure grassland) through campo sujo and campo cerrado to cerrado sensu stricto and on to [[cerradao|cerradão]] (near-closed woodland). Soil depth, fire frequency and water table set where a given patch sits on that gradient.
Why this entry
Naming the typifying physiognomy makes the gradient legible — the same move [[varzea|várzea]]/[[igapo|igapó]]/[[terra-firme|terra firme]] does for the Amazon. It anchors what “Cerrado vegetation” means for every listing, fruit and trail that references the biome.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[campo-limpo]] · [[cerradao]] · [[fire-adapted-flora]]
- Contained by: [[cerrado]]
What links here, and how
Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.
Scientific
shares approach with
- Campo limpo grades into typical cerrado as woody cover increases (via campo sujo, campo cerrado)
- Cerradão the typical savanna it grades into as canopy opens
contains
- Cerrado the typifying physiognomy; campo limpo and cerradão are the gradient's ends
3 inbound links · 4 outbound